"In recent years, an odd consensus has arisen where many believe that games are easier than they used to be. In many cases it's true, and it isn't surprising, as extreme competition between titles has created the need for games to be immediately entertaining as soon as you press the start button. As a consequence, many older - and potentially newer - players consider these games of yesteryear much more difficult. The immense challenge Wii U owners have experienced with virtual console games is evidence of that. Are these newer adventures really easier? Or has the design philosophy for video games improved instead?" Interesting take. I will tell you this, though - take a game like Dragon Age (the only one that matters, so the first one). It's immediately accessible to newcomers at the easy and normal setting, but try stepping it up to nightmare mode, and you're suddenly back in old-fashioned hardcore territory where you'll need to apply every little bit there is to know about the game to be able to finish it (tip for DA fanatics: finish the game without a single character going down in combat, on nightmare. I did it. It's hell). My point is: sometimes, you have to up the difficulty or create your own challenges to find the rewarding difficulty of gaming yore.

This is about Underworld, so a bit older than the latest reboot, but still relevant. For example, for the 1365 people that completed the game, the death rates were 28.9% from NPCs, 13.7% from fire/traps/drowning and 57.2% from falling.

I'm just speculating now, but I'm sure they would have taken this kind of info into account when developing the reboot. It's amazing how much data about player behaviour games developers now have access to. If games seem to be getting easier, this probably has something to do with it.